A spray of ocean water splattered across her face as the steamer plowed through a cresting wave. Helene licked her lips, tasting the salt and the seaweed, the fish, and a thousand other things she had no words for. Stars above, it was good to be out of the city. The sect was great, but by the end of winter every year she was itching to get back out on the water. This time she had just ended a casual relationship with a member of the Kitchen. Distance was useful when such things ran their course.

Part of her toyed with the idea of moving down south. To Lanport or Bremont or one of the other coastal areas big enough to need cultivators, but where it wasn't so difficult to get around for a quarter of the year. Even without the port freezing over, braving the northern sea in winter was not something anyone did lightly.

She looked over her shoulder to make sure everything was alright on the deck. Technically she was here as security, via a cross-contract with the Mercenary's, Hunter's and Magician's Guilds, since no one could quite agree on what the biggest threats were to merchant transports nowadays.

It was a great view of Natalia, gamely forcing her way towards the bow. Helene watched as her fellow sectmember and initiate put one hand in front of the other on the railing, staggering forward with white-knuckled determination.

A full minute later, she reached Helene, panting at the effort.

"Still getting the sea legs?" she asked.

"Yup! I'm sure I'll be there soon." The chipper response was at odds with the slightly green tinge to the other woman's skin. "That seasickness medication should be kicking in soon too."

Helene let out a reluctant chuckle. It was difficult to be taciturn in the face of so much cheer.

"Why'd you take this job if you don't like sailing?"

"I didn't know how I'd feel about the ship," she answered with a shrug. "Never been on one before now have I?"

With a start, Helene realized she would have said the same thing, only a few years ago. Before joining the sect she had only ever been in the shallows, on the rare day Gabrielle had dragged her down to the rocky shore, far away from the harbor.

She knew it was true, but it was like looking through a pane of glass. Helene could see the memories, but couldn't reach out to touch. The texture had faded, replaced with a life so entirely foreign to the one she'd grown accustomed to.

"Why are you out here with me then, instead of on the trip to the Forest Monarch? Aren't you all about plants?"

Natalia waved her off. Then lurched back to latch on to the railing as they went through a larger swell. "I thought about it, asked them to keep an eye out for a few things. But I decided it wasn't worth it. I've got about all I can handle right now, propagating the samples we have at the sect and figuring out the optimal growing conditions. Besides, the ship is stopping in Lanport for a full week. That's enough time to scour the markets for anything good and make it out to see my parents for a couple of days. I brought some stuff that should help with the yields."

"Oh. Cool." Conversation was not really Helene's favorite pastime. Luckily, Natalia didn't seem uncomfortable as people so often were when she didn't bother with the usual hollow pleasantries. They settled in to wait at the bow, out of the way of the crew, keeping an eye on things.

Natalia either hit a wall with how long she could tolerate silence, or simply couldn't hold it in any longer, and launched into an in depth description of her theories on optimizing her family's farm.

"The alchemy experiments have been showing promise. The last three didn't even damage the plants. As far as we could tell. But we need more scale for the next round of testing. My parents never work the whole farm. They told me I could use a field to see what will happen this growing season.

"And we had to get Laurel's permission, but she used some of the old sect instruments no one is allowed to touch, and she said it shouldn't be harmful, but there's no way to tell if it will actually work."

"Or there is. But the people who know how to do it are, like, evil or whatever. So we can't ask them. I guess there could be an Alchemy Lab that would help, but it's not on the budget for new City Perks for a while.

"If I'm honest, that's another reason I'm coming. I know Madam Skycrest handed over the Lanport Core to one of the other Indell alumnae but I'm hoping I can convince them to get one. Or Harrock. It should play well with their magical industry situation right?"

Helene breathed in the sea air and let the monologue flow around her, grateful she was not expected to participate. Instead her senses expanded, connecting with the vast ocean around her. With a nudge her mana sped up, as she spread herself out further and further.

Her head snapped down, staring at the water while her raised hand cut Natalia off mid-stream.

"Get the mercs."

The younger cultivator didn't ask any questions. And she didn't cling to the rail as she turned and ran off. Helene watched her skid into the hatch below deck but her focus was mostly beneath the waves.

She stood watch, but there wasn't much she could do yet except brace for impact and shout a warning. The thudding slam tossed even veteran soldiers off their feet. But the metal hull held, and now that the thing was closer, and not moving so quickly, Helene could tell it was too small to get through.

Then it started to climb. The ship listed towards the port side. They wouldn't capsize, but it was even harder for the soldiers to find their footing again. It was a problem, but not for her. Without pausing to ask for permission, Helene was already sprinting across the deck, towards the monster attacking the ship.

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Big and mean were the first two words that came to mind. Rubbery and gross, the next. Then teeth. Lots of teeth. It was like a whale and an alligator were blended together and spat out this result. There wasn't a whole lot of time to consider strategy, so she pulled out her pistol. Gabrielle – and funnily enough, Martin – had insisted they all become at least semi-competent.

Her first shot pinged off the scales. Not good. The second shot did the same thing, but it was closer to where she was actually aiming. When Helene fired the third shot, she wasn't alone. Mercenaries had appeared on either side. Hulking and scarred and well-armed, they joined her in the barrage.

"Fucker is hard to kill," one said. Far from any sort of fear or apprehension, they sounded excited.

The monster was only a couple of meters below them now. At least it was harder to miss. One of the mercs hit the eye, which exploded in a shower of goo.

The monster turned from enraged to rabid. Ship defenders scattered as it heaved itself the final meters onto the deck.

"You know why we're here!" A voice like jagged rocks cut through the chaos. Captain Maret was a dangerous woman, which was why she'd been chosen to lead the mercenaries hired for this trip. A small force of four, plus Helene and Natalia, nonetheless capable of "giving anyone or anything the fight for its life" according to her speech when they came aboard.

"Magic users, this thing doesn't like bullets, so do what you can while we keep it off you. Everyone else. If I see you stop shooting you'll be on prison rations for the rest of the trip!"

The career mercenaries released something between a cheer and a war cry, along with a hail of bullets. Each found its mark. Even without penetrating the rubbery hide, the beast seemed unable to focus. A perfect opening if Helene knew what would kill it.

She would just try everything. Water rose up around her, the arrival of the monster having soaked the deck. Her first lash had even less of an impact than the bullets. She didn't bother with a second. Martin said he could shear through almost anything with a water drill or high enough pressure. Helene wasn't there yet.

The beast roared. For something from the ocean, it was handling open air far too well. The roar was like getting punched in the face, the water she had manipulated dropping to the deck as her technique was interrupted.

Its stubby tail swung back and forth, keeping the nearby deck clear. It would be a powerful propulsion in the water, but it lacked the reach to hit the mercenaries. Not that they could really hit it either.

No armor was perfect. That was a truth the sect officers had beaten into the initiates enough times. There was always a weakness. She saw the second eye, rolling as the thing thrashed with rage. It was a good place to start.

Edging around, Helene waited for her opening, then sent another lash of water whipping forward. She missed. But not by much. Which had the unintended consequence of gaining the thing's attention.

It lumbered towards her. The teeth were yellowed and Helene got the first whiff of its breath, offensive enough to be a weapon on its own. She dodged, and keep dodging. Maybe they could tire it out, kill it by attrition.

Another volley of bullets grabbed the monster's attention, the head swinging back around to face the mercenaries again. At least it wasn't smart. Helene understood the risks when she took these missions. There were monsters out there that her sect officers would think twice before fighting. Let alone her. But she had been assured they would be uninterested in merchant ships.

So why was this thing here, now? A question for later.

The mercenaries had bought her a moment and she would spend it the best she could. Focusing on her mana, she connected it with the water at her feet. The liquid rose, coiled into a rope as thick around as her thumb. Holding the shape in her mind wasn't easy. Adding anything else was almost impossible. But only almost. With her will she layered on the idea of pressure and speed. Squeezing more and more water into the same area. When it reached her limits of control, she let it loose.

The bolt of water hit true, and the second eye exploded. When it roared this time, Helene was ready. Her control of her own mana wavered, but held.

She wasn't the only one. Helene hadn't spared a thought to what Natalia had been up to. There weren't plants around for her to use in the fight, and Helene had been busy. A mistake.

When the beast's maw opened, the unsteady initiate darted in, and slammed a glass vial down its throat. Then she ducked back out, slipping and sliding but managing to stay upright as she retreated behind the mercenaries.

No time to stop and see what happened. Helene kept fighting, and so did everyone else. This time she aimed for the gills, or what she thought might be gills. It was the only change she could find in the skin, and it had to mean something. The mercenaries kept up their barrage.

It was a stalemate. They kept the monster swinging in circles, unable to focus, but they couldn't finish it off either. And Helene was getting tired.

But so was their target. It staggered port. Then starboard. Then two of it's legs collapsed out from under it. Foam spurted from the mouth.

With no more fanfare, it thrashed once, twice, and went still.

The mercenaries figured another few rounds of bullets would be good measure. After a few moments, it became clear the thing was dead.

Helene made her way over to where Natalia was watching. Besides being out of breath, the girl seemed fine.

"I thought Cooper was the one with poisons," she said.

"What? Oh, ha ha. Well I only said we got the third version of the fertilizer working. The first one was….deemed too dangerous to test."

They both looked over to where the mercenaries were poking at the monster and telling jokes back and forth.

"Yeah," Helene said at last.

After another few moments of silence, Natalia spoke again. "Should we…harvest it? There's always standard contribution point bonuses for useful beat parts. And cores."

"You have anything that will cut that thing open?"

"No."

"Me neither. I think we take the loss and toss it overboard."

"Yeah," Natalia sighed, still a bit disappointed they wouldn't get anything extra out of it.

The sailors had returned to the deck, and were doing just that, rolling the beast towards the railing it had climbed over to attack. The attack was still confusing to Helene, more so now that she had a few moments to sit down and think. Smart monsters would have used more strategy in that fight. But for something that was basically a wild animal, why attack the ship at all? They were too big, and too metal-plated to be prey.

"Hey wait!" Natalia called out, scurrying over to the carcass. This time she looked more confident. Nothing like a good life or death battle for earning sea legs. She walked to the tail and started poking at it with one of the sailors.

Helene ambled over to join them. Clipped onto the bottom of the tailfin, was an iron ring. There were some symbols etched on the outside which she couldn't recognize, but it was definitely human-made.

That added a lot of questions. Ones she was pretty certain they needed the answers to, even if she would rather not hear them.

"We need to keep it," Natalia said.

Helene pulled out a hatchet. Not so good against something this size, but she always kept the blades sharp. It took some effort, but the fin was less sturdy than the rest of the skin, and she was able to get the ring out. Then she scrubbed her hands with the harshest soap onboard, because that had been absolutely vile. There was a reason she preferred the guarding contracts to the hunting ones.

It wasn't until the evening, when they were in their shared berth, that she and Natalia had more time to talk.

"We got hired because the merchant house lost one ship already this year, right?"

"Yup," Helene answered.

"And that's weird right? Ships don't sink nowadays."

"Yup."

"And someone had tagged that monster. Not sure why but monsters don't wear jewelry."

"Yup."

Natalia thrashed around in her hammock, but eventually rolled over until she was facing Helene. Only the light from the glowstone they had set up illuminated the room, giving them both a ghostly pallor that only Helene really had in the light of day.

"Probably on purpose then."

"Yup".

There was silence for a few moments, only broken by the ever-present hum of the engine and the creaks and groans of a ship that Helene had come to find comforting after so many voyages the last few years.

"At least we were pretty badass today.

Helene smiled towards the ceiling. "Yup."

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